The German edition of this book was published in an edition of 1100, while only 100 copies of French, English, Polish, and Russian editions were issued.

"It was in response to [the black-and-white, portentously gloomy and romantic style of photographing concentration camps] that Andreas Magdanz decided to use color photography when he photographed the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex as part of Marceline Loridan-Ivens's autobiographical feature film, La petite prairie aux bouleaux (Little Birch Meadow, 2002)...Magdanz's photography makes its effects by means of understatement. Viewing his color images, one sees clearly that the photographic medium of reality is now color, where once it was considered to be monochrome. And this is unsettling: Auschwitz is brought into the here and now. These calm, summery pictures remove it from the long ago and far away, a symbol of the past that we can safely leave with an unbelieving shudder. They force us to meditate not only on what happened, but on the forces of intolerance--still at work--that may allow it to happen again."--Parr & Badger, The Photobook: A History, Vol. II.